Journal Article > Study

The authors describe a medication safety communication initiative that sent e-mail messages to patients regarding new or changed prescriptions. The authors conclude that the system helped physicians identify and address adverse drug events.

Journal Article > Study

Children are at high risk for medication errors in emergency departments (EDs). Physician prescribing has been implicated as the most common source of these errors. This retrospective study found that telemedicine consultations for pediatric critical care were associated with fewer physician-related medication errors among seriously ill children in rural EDs. Telemedicine consultations seemed to reduce medication errors more than traditional telephone consultations. Telemedicine may prove to be an important tool for improving the care of rural patients across many different scenarios.

Journal Article > Study

Medication error rates at community pharmacies (with pharmacists on-site) were similar to rates at remote telepharmacies (which are staffed by pharmacy technicians with remote pharmacist oversight). However, remote telepharmacies reported more near misses.

According to this study, the North Dakota Telepharmacy Project frequently identifies and resolves medication issues at 17 critical access hospitals. Telepharmacies are increasingly proving to be effective at providing medication safety for rural hospitals.

Journal Article > Review

Patient safety in the homecare setting has begun to garner increasing attention. This systematic review explored patient safety issues related to the emerging use of telecare to provide remote services for patients at home. Many risks were identified, but the authors conclude more study is needed to understand telecare-related patient safety.

Providing patients with an accurate list of their medication at discharge can be challenging. This commentary reveals the development, implementation, and initial testing of a service managed by pharmacists that engaged telepharmacy support as partners to enhance medication reconciliation at discharge. By the end of the 19-month pilot program, the service enhanced the quality of final medication lists and documentation given to patients at discharge.

Newspaper/Magazine Article

Texting medication orders is convenient for providers, but there are concerns associated with safety and security risks. This newsletter article reviews the results of a national survey on the use of provider text messaging in health care. Participants reported problems such as misidentification of patients, autocorrection errors, and misunderstood abbreviations that can contribute to medication errors.

In this cluster-randomized trial, researchers examined the impact of an automated phone call with the option of transfer to a live pharmacist on detecting potential adverse drug events for patients newly started on medications for certain conditions in the primary care setting. Patients receiving the intervention were more likely to have medications stopped with documentation reflecting adverse effects.